Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – When Paige Beckner enters a game her West High teammates know exactly what to expect for the senior forward.

Hustle, energy, strong rebounding and solid defense.

One thing that Beckner hasn’t been known for during her varsity career is instant offense but that is exactly what she provided on Friday.

Beckner scored all seven of her points in the first half to spark Class 5A third-ranked West High to a 72-50 win over No. 14 Cedar Rapids Washington (7-5) in a Mississippi Valley Conference contest at West High.

“My role is always just to give as much energy as I can and try to get us going,” Beckner said. “I know I’m in there to block shots and play good defense and not necessarily to be a scorer.”

The seven points matched a season-high for Beckner who entered averaging 3.2 per game and jolted to life a West High offense that missed its first seven shots and went 2-for-15 with eight turnovers in the first quarter.

Beckner had four points during a 10-0 second-quarter run that snapped a 13-all tie and gave West High a lead it would never give up.

“She is very capable of scoring as you saw tonight but she impacts the game with her defense usually,” Mayer said. “I thought defensive and rebounding she was really good and anything we get out of her offensively is a plus.”

Logan Cook led three West High players in double figures with 16 points as the Women of Troy won their sixth straight despite shooting 24 percent first-half field goal shooting.

West High held a 46-26 rebounding edge and outscored the Warriors 19-7 at the free throw line while moving to 10-2 on the season.

“When we are struggling shooting we try to work harder and really emphasis the other parts of the game like rebounding and steals,” West High junior Emma Koch said. “We used those other things to get us going when we weren’t shooting great.”

West High scored 15 seconds into the game but then went more than four minutes without a point before a Cailyn Morgan jumper with 3:20 left in the opening quarter.

Becker connected on her first field goal attempt of the game, an 18-foot jumper from the corner to tie the score at 6-all and give the Women of Troy some life on offense.

“It definitely hypes us up because she doesn’t shoot very much so when she does score it gets us all fired up,” Koch said. “I think she was a big catalyst for our team tonight.”

West High trailed 9-8 after the first quarter but used the offensive boost from Beckner in the second to take control.

Beckner scored four straight points to push the West High lead to 21-13 as the Women of Troy closed the first half on a 14-4 run.

“We really rely on our starters but when we get the chance we always expect the bench to come in with full energy and try to step up and get the game going,” Beckner said. “That’s what I try to bring every game.”

West High offset its early shooting struggles by controlling the glass.

The Women of Troy had 15 of their 17 offensive rebounds in the first half and attempted 10 more field goals than the Warriors in the first quarter quarters.

Morgan just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds while Cook and Emma Koch each had eight boards.

Beckner had five rebounds off the bench.

“I think that rebounding is super important for us and it was especially important tonight because our shots weren’t falling,” Koch said. “We want to come out and do that every game because it’s something you can always control. It’s mostly effort so you can always control that, if your shots aren’t falling you can’t control that but you can control the effort.”

The cold shooting didn’t last.

West High shot 64 percent while scoring 45 second-half points to secure the win.

Audrey Koch scored all 12 of her points in the fourth quarter and Rachel Saunders and Lauren Zacharias each finished with eight points.

“The effort wasn’t the problem it was taking care of the ball and I think we had 13 or 14 turnovers in the first half and we probably missed 10 or 12 layups and if you even make half of those you are up 20 and it’s probably over at that point,” Mayer said. “I was proud of the way we came out in the second half and we were much better with that.”

West High                  8  19  22  23  –  72

CR Washington         9   8   20  13  –  50

West High (72) – Cailyn Morgan 3-8 4-4 11, Maytayia Tellis 2-4 0-0 4, Lauren Zacharias 4-9 0-0 8, Rachael Saunders 2-5 4-6 8, Logan Cook 5-14 4-4 16, Audrey Koch 5-6 0-0 12, Emma Koch 0-5 6-8 6, Paige Beckner 3-7 1-5 7, Team 72.

Cedar Rapids Washington (50) – Caitlin Riley 3-10 0-0 8, Sydney Mitvalsky 4-10 0-0 9, Isabel Truemper 3-6 0-0 7, Brittany Postma 1-2 0-0 3, Vanessa Eniola 2-7 6-6 10, Sandra Mia 6-9 1-3 13, Jayla Pledge-Johnson 0-5 0-4 0, Team 19-49 7-12 50.

3-point field goals – ICW 5-15 (Morgan 1-4, Zacharias 0-3, Saunders 0-1, Cook 2-3, A. Koch 2-2, Beckner 0-2); CRW 5-17 (Riley 2-6, Mitvalsky 1-4, Truemper 1-4, Postma 1-1, Eniola 0-1, Johnson 0-1). Rebounds – ICW 46 (Morgan 9); CRW 26 (Mia 6). Turnovers – ICW 16; CRW 18. Total fouls – ICW 13; CRW 17. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.